Women’s orgasms increase with men’s attractiveness

Being voted the sexiest man alive by People magazine might mean very little to Channing Tatum other than good publicity, but according to a recent study done in a US university it might influence his sex life a great deal. Researchers found that women who have sex with men they think are more attractive and masculine have orgasms more frequently.

Puts, Welling, Burriss and Dawood, set out to determine the frequency and timing of women’s orgasms related to the masculinity and attractiveness of their male partners. This is significant because historically, female orgasms has been seen as non-essential to conception but these researchers hypothesize that it might increase “…the probability of fertilization from high quality males”. Orgasms of women increase the likelihood of conception because of the hormone, oxytocin, which is released. Oxytocin aids in the transport of sperm to the ovum. It also results in sperm living longer, more sperm that is able to fertilize the ovum and lengthen the total time in which sperm can fertilize an ovum. Also, orgasms and oxytocin prevent sperm loss by allowing earlier entry into the cervix away from the relatively hostile environment of the vagina. A different way that orgasms affect conception is that because of the pleasure experienced women will want to continue to have sex and especially with the males who they experience frequent orgasms with.

The researchers used questionnaires filled in by 110 heterosexual couples. The women had to rate their own attractiveness as well as the masculinity of their partners, and the men had to rate their own attractiveness and their partners femininity. They also had to reveal how many times they experienced orgasms with their partners at different times of the sexual intercourse as well as self-masturbation. Then facial photos were taken of the different male respondents and these were rated by others in a different UK university based on attractiveness and masculinity. The results showed that “…objective measures of the quality of women’s mates – men’s attractiveness and masculinity – significantly predicted the women’s orgasms”.

So women whose partners are more masculine according to them and objective others have more frequent orgasms and also more orgasms before male ejaculation. Having an orgasm before ejaculation is associated with increased sexual arousal and pleasure. A noteworthy finding was that the men did not necessarily rate themselves as very dominant or masculine compared to the rating of the women. So although their partners and others saw them as masculine and dominant, they did not see themselves in that way.

Also, physical attractiveness and relationship length predicted the frequency and timing of the women’s orgasms while having sex. But it did not predict orgasm frequency during sexual activities that will not result in conception such as masturbation or oral sex.

So being the sexiest man alive will influence your sex life by giving your partner more frequent orgasms!